Israel's Netanyahu says West Bank 'belongs to us' despite widespread condemnation

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday that there would be "no Palestinian state," speaking at a signing ceremony for a settlement project in the occupied West Bank.

"We are going to fulfil our promise that there will be no Palestinian state, this place belongs to us," Netanyahu said at the event in Maale Adumim, an Israeli settlement just east of Jerusalem.

"We will safeguard our heritage, our land and our security... We are going to double the city's population." The event was streamed live by his office.

Israel has long had ambitions to build on the roughly 12 square kilometre (five square mile) tract of land known as E1, but the plan had been stalled for years in the face of international opposition.

Condemnation

Last month Israel's far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich backed plans to build around 3,400 homes on the ultra-sensitive parcel of land, which lies between Jerusalem and Maale Adumim.